g it full of
human blood, she dipped the head of Cyrus in the gore, saying, as she
thus insulted the corse, "I live and have conquered thee in fight, and
yet by thee am I ruined, for thou tookest my son with guile; but thus I
make good my threat, and give thee thy fill of blood." The engagement
was not as serious as the legend would have us believe, and the growth
of the Persian power was in no way affected, by it. It cost Cyrus his
life, but his army experienced no serious disaster, and his men took
the king's body and brought it to Pasargadae. He had a palace there, the
remains of which can still be seen on the plain of Murgab. The edifice
was unpretentious, built upon a rectangular plan, with two porches of
four columns on the longer sides, a lateral chamber at each of the four
angles, and a hypostyle hall in the centre, divided lengthways by two
rows of columns which supported the roof. The walls were decorated with
bas-reliefs, and wherever the inscriptions have not been destroyed,
we can read in cuneiform characters in the three languages which
thenceforward formed the official means of communication of the
empire--Persian, Medic, and Chaldaean--the name, title, and family of
the royal occupant. Cyrus himself is represented in a standing posture
on the pilasters, wearing a costume in which Egyptian and Assyrian
features are curiously combined. He is clothed from neck to ankle in the
close-fitting fringed tunic of the Babylonian and Mnevite sovereigns;
his feet are covered with laced boots, while four great wings, emblems
of the supreme power, overshadow his shoulders and loins, two of them
raised in the air, the others pointing to the earth; he wears on
his head the Egyptian skull-cap, from which rises one of the most
complicated head-dresses of the royal wardrobe of the Pharaohs. The
monarch raises his right hand with the gesture of a man speaking to an
assembled people, and as if repeating the legend traced above his image:
"I am Cyrus, the king, the Achaemenian." He was buried not far off, in
the monumental tomb which he had probably built for himself in a square
enclosure, having a portico on three of its sides; a small chamber,
with a ridge roof, rises from a base composed of six receding steps, so
arranged as to appear of unequal height.

[Illustration: 128.jpg CYRUS THE ACHAEMENIAN]

Drawn by Boudier, from the photograph by Dieulafoy.

The doorway is narrow, and so low that a man of medium statue fin